The top reported proficiency rate is 8% in Math. The lowest is 5% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on North Tampa Success Center
North Tampa Success Center is a public alternative school operated by Hillsborough County Schools, serving students in grades six through twelve from a single campus on North Armenia Avenue in Tampa. It is a small school by any measure, with an enrollment that fits comfortably in a large gymnasium. The student body is predominantly Black, with Hispanic students making up a meaningful secondary share, and the vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what was provided.
Because this is a classified alternative school, the context for reading its numbers matters enormously. Alternative schools in Florida typically serve students who have faced significant barriers in traditional settings, including disciplinary placements, credit deficiencies, family instability, or other circumstances that interrupted their education. Proficiency rates reported on Florida's FAST assessments are very low across math, ELA, and science at the grades where data was reported; sixth-grade results were suppressed, likely reflecting very small group sizes. These figures are the honest picture, and a parent should understand they reflect where students are arriving from, not simply what the school is delivering. That said, the numbers are low enough that a parent who wants to understand what academic supports and recovery pathways are in place would be right to ask the school directly about its approach to credit recovery, reading intervention, and postsecondary preparation.
No graduation rate data was available for this school. Given that it serves through grade twelve, graduation outcomes matter. Comparative metrics against other Hillsborough County districts were not computed because the comparison cohort was too small to apply them meaningfully. Chronic absenteeism data was also absent from what was provided.
Program information was not available in the data provided, so it is not possible to say what specific services, counseling structures, or career pathways the school offers. That is a significant gap for a school whose purpose is presumably to re-engage students and set them toward a credential. Anyone considering this placement for a student should ask what the school's structured pathway looks like from enrollment through completion.
The school sits in the Armenia Avenue corridor of north Tampa, a part of the city that is neither the downtown business core nor the more affluent residential neighborhoods to the south and west. Tampa broadly is in an active development phase, with large-scale mixed-use projects advancing downtown and in adjacent districts, but that investment has been concentrated elsewhere. The immediate neighborhood around the school is more working residential in character. Publicly reported information indicates that Hillsborough County voters approved a property tax levy in late 2024 to fund teacher and staff pay increases, running through the decade, which affects homeowners in the area and represents a structural change to how the district funds compensation. The district also carried out a significant boundary rezoning for the 2024-25 school year affecting dozens of schools, though alternative school placements generally follow different pathways than zone-based assignments.
Housing near the school, based on zip-level data, shows values somewhat below both state and national medians, with a modest year-over-year decline. Rents in the area are roughly flat. The rent-to-income ratio suggests housing costs consume a meaningful share of income for typical households, consistent with the economic profile of families this school serves.
North Tampa Success Center is a school designed for students in circumstances that traditional schools have not served well. Its low proficiency scores are a factual reality, and they sit in that context. The question a parent or guardian is really asking about a school like this is whether it will help a particular student stabilize, recover credits, and reach graduation. That question cannot be fully answered from test score data alone, and the program and outcome details that would answer it were not available here.
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